So it has come down to it at last. The final nail in the coffin. The ending waltz on the dance floor. The last Pringle in the can. Or something. Either way, we have sworn in another president, we have upheld our particularly American brand of Democracy, and we are all certainly awaiting every politician to be taken into custody, executed, and then for Trump to rule forever. Q just has to be correct right? The track record is.... stunning? Pictured: Q at his computer, or something. Creator: Rembrandt | Credit: Hermitage Either way, our country has reached the dawning of a new administration. An event that has happened 45 previous times, and will undoubtedly happen many many more. But along the way, there was a bit of... discourse, if you could call it that. Most of it was spurned on by the greatest of all threats in this day and age, the Keyboard Warriors. Yes, this multi-class, 12th level, 5h Edition DnD champion has, for the last 5-6 years at least, had an alarmingly large a
"Darkness. Apathy. Rage. Penance. This is my world. All those whom tread my path will know my suffering. I shall inflict upon evil what evil has inflicted upon me. No more Mr. Niceguy. I will become a paragon of the blade of justice. I shall break upon my foes the same pains that weigh me down. Never again shall those who I fight for fear the night. For I am the night. I am John-Paul Valley, and I am Batman. I shall strike fear upon the wicked. And they will learn to fear my unholy visage... "
The 90's were... an interesting time. Fashion went out the window. Slang was denser and wackier than ever. Television and music was either total nonsense, or completely serious and adult, with little in between. And comics.... oh sweet comics. This was a dark time indeed. What you see above, is the 90's re-imagining of Batman. Yes, I will apologize on behalf of DC. While this unholy abomination was bad, it was BY FAR not the worst ilk to come from the dark age. While we did get some notable fair such as Spawn, Lobo and Deadpool, overall, the 90's proved to be an experiment in something that many Warhammer 40K fans will say they have a monopoly on; GRIMDARK.
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| OH GOD! BURN IT! BURN IT!!! |
The 90's were... an interesting time. Fashion went out the window. Slang was denser and wackier than ever. Television and music was either total nonsense, or completely serious and adult, with little in between. And comics.... oh sweet comics. This was a dark time indeed. What you see above, is the 90's re-imagining of Batman. Yes, I will apologize on behalf of DC. While this unholy abomination was bad, it was BY FAR not the worst ilk to come from the dark age. While we did get some notable fair such as Spawn, Lobo and Deadpool, overall, the 90's proved to be an experiment in something that many Warhammer 40K fans will say they have a monopoly on; GRIMDARK.
You see, grimdark is a term used to refer to anything that goes beyond what many would consider simple pathos and into territory that Satan himself would say is a bit too edgy for his taste. While the aforementioned Warhammer tended to revel in it and understand that going that far across the pale was fun in certain circumstances, comic manufacturers seemed to mistake edginess for genuine character development. They wished to leave behind what they saw as the squeaky clean image of their heroes in the past 40 years, for something more "mature" and "adult", failing to realize of course that just because you give a character a dark and mysterious past, that doesn't automatically make them interesting. This was the downfall of many a character, causing a whole slew of people to write off comics as trash. Even more so than before!
Sadly, all of this really was a perfect encapsulation of what the 90's were. We as a society had just come out of the Cold War, and so were trying to find our way in a time of relative "peace". Kids of the time were generally raised by parents who grew up in the counter-culture times of the 60's and 70's, and so had much different methods to raising children than their parents did. As such, the 90's kid was a very free spirited and rambunctious type. The pop culture of the time reflected this, with teen sitcoms and soap opera type shows where the young characters had "bad streaks" and got into trouble. No longer was it edgy to have your protagonist smoke in the bathroom, now they would tag up the gym wall or steal the principles car. Although these actions where things to not look up to, our generation tended to emulate these characters.
Comics went through the phase as well. As mentioned before, they gave many a character dark and brooding pasts, where once their existed none. Characters like Batman, who already had angsty backgrounds, were shelved and had "replacements" brought in that amped up the EDGY factor. That's how we got Jean-Paul whats-his-face up there. And then, other characters, such as Superman, were actually killed off. I mean, not for good obviously, because everyone knows that comic characters never stay dead, but it was still seen as a pretty big departure from the norm. Artists such as Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane used their talents to create and illustrate some of the most musclebound, edge-lord, manly MAN freaks that ever graced the comic scene.
That's not to say that everything was horrid trash. Most was, but not everything. Spawn survived the 90's and went on for YEARS pretty much unchanged. What seemed like a gimmick for most other characters was a strength for Spawn. He was literally powered by the energies of HELL, and so regularly fought evil demon creatures from your worst nightmares. And he looked the part too, with chains and spikes galore. But it worked. It was endeared upon us because the character actually had depth to them, and wasn't just some colossal meat-head screaming about death and destruction. Deadpool too came out as one of the most popular from that era. While originally a relatively straight copy of Deathstroke, even down to their civilian names (ed note: Slade Wilson = Wade Wilson. Clever girl.) he was re-branded not much later as a comedic and wisecracking merc-with-a-mouth, and eventually evolved into the 4th wall breaking jackass we know and love today. A number of other characters have stuck around, some even keeping much the same personality. Guess you never really can defeat the 'tude.
Sadly, all of this really was a perfect encapsulation of what the 90's were. We as a society had just come out of the Cold War, and so were trying to find our way in a time of relative "peace". Kids of the time were generally raised by parents who grew up in the counter-culture times of the 60's and 70's, and so had much different methods to raising children than their parents did. As such, the 90's kid was a very free spirited and rambunctious type. The pop culture of the time reflected this, with teen sitcoms and soap opera type shows where the young characters had "bad streaks" and got into trouble. No longer was it edgy to have your protagonist smoke in the bathroom, now they would tag up the gym wall or steal the principles car. Although these actions where things to not look up to, our generation tended to emulate these characters.
Comics went through the phase as well. As mentioned before, they gave many a character dark and brooding pasts, where once their existed none. Characters like Batman, who already had angsty backgrounds, were shelved and had "replacements" brought in that amped up the EDGY factor. That's how we got Jean-Paul whats-his-face up there. And then, other characters, such as Superman, were actually killed off. I mean, not for good obviously, because everyone knows that comic characters never stay dead, but it was still seen as a pretty big departure from the norm. Artists such as Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane used their talents to create and illustrate some of the most musclebound, edge-lord, manly MAN freaks that ever graced the comic scene.
That's not to say that everything was horrid trash. Most was, but not everything. Spawn survived the 90's and went on for YEARS pretty much unchanged. What seemed like a gimmick for most other characters was a strength for Spawn. He was literally powered by the energies of HELL, and so regularly fought evil demon creatures from your worst nightmares. And he looked the part too, with chains and spikes galore. But it worked. It was endeared upon us because the character actually had depth to them, and wasn't just some colossal meat-head screaming about death and destruction. Deadpool too came out as one of the most popular from that era. While originally a relatively straight copy of Deathstroke, even down to their civilian names (ed note: Slade Wilson = Wade Wilson. Clever girl.) he was re-branded not much later as a comedic and wisecracking merc-with-a-mouth, and eventually evolved into the 4th wall breaking jackass we know and love today. A number of other characters have stuck around, some even keeping much the same personality. Guess you never really can defeat the 'tude.
All of this culminated in publishers abandoning the re-imaginings real darn quick. Superman was resurrected about a year later, Bruce Wayne came back to retake the Batman cowl, and a good majority of the SUPER-HARDCORE-EDGY heroes that had been created during this time were shelved, only to be heard of again in cursory passing. It seemed like the publishers were getting back into the ordinary swing of things, but the problem was, their readers hadn't. Many had been alienated by the story-lines and tone of the 90's comics, and so were slow to adopt them back.
Around this time, Hollywood also came a-callin. Although there had been comic book movies before, it seemed that the 90's was the first big push by Hollywood to adapt the heroes of the page onto the screen. The likes of Batman, Blade, Spider-Man and the X-Men were all adapted to the big screen in the mid to late 90's and early 2000's. While they received alright reviews, with a few exceptions (ed note: Cough! Batman and Robin. Cough!) they didn't really cause the colossal uproar that Hollywood wanted. Spider-Man was by far the biggest hit of the group, but even then, didn't start a box office trend. Yet. It wasn't until the year 2008 that the world was antiquated to what would eventually become the highest grossing media franchise of all time. The culmination of all our myths and legends, was about to begin...
To be concluded in The New Mythologies - Part 4: Gods and Dollar Signs...
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